Blair Major - McGill University [PDF]

Blair Major. Given the growing interconnectedness of our global community, Canadian society is becoming more and more so

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Idea Transcript


Blair Major Given the growing interconnectedness of our global community, Canadian society is becoming more and more socially complex. Part of the complexity can be seen in the intersections – which sometimes look more like spectacular collisions – between religion and law.

establish that one is “right” and the other “wrong” – that religion needs to bend to law or law bend to religion. Constant attempts have been made to do this over at least the last 900 years, but still without sustaining results. Perhaps instead of trying to find the ways to decide between religion and law we should think more about the There are two recent examples of this. One is the ways that they agree with each other. story about Ms Zunera Ishaq, a woman who would like to wear a religious face covering while taking the oath to “Agreement” between religion and law is not the become a Canadian citizen, and the government who best way to approach the matter, though, because it might opposes her. Another is the story about a private Christian fail to escape the mentality of finding “right” and “wrong” University, Trinity Western University, that would like to positions. In my research, I have found it better to think open a law school, and the law societies and lawyers that about the connections between religion and law in terms of oppose it. The arguments and ideas batted back and forth overlap. There are three specific points of overlap that in both situations are emotionally charged and polarizing. reframe the way we think about interactions between law Meaningful public dialogue about them has become almost and religion, which might be helpful in the discussions of impossible. As a result, both of these situations are now Canada’s Research Future. proceeding through the court system. First, both religion and law ascribe special meaning Confronted with situations like these, we often find to things through their own constructed symbolic systems. ourselves prone to a misguided faith in the power and These symbolic meanings are grounded, for both religion promise of “knowledge” – that if we can just find the right and law, in real experiences and real actions. Second, both idea then everyone will agree, or we can feel confident in religion and law constantly struggle to define their silencing those who don’t. I suggest that we should hesitate boundaries – for law, what is unlawful; for religion, what is in making claims about what it is that Canada needs to unorthodox. These boundaries constantly move, and are “know” in order to find answers to the questions we always pushed and pulled by dissenting voices. Thirdly, for both religion and law, community plays a central role, encounter in the interactions between law and religion. especially in constructing meanings and defining The difficulty is that law and religion are complex boundaries of belonging. things, with complex histories. There is no clear way to

“[It’s] a matter of trying to reframe the way that we think about these two entities… or discourses in religion and law.” (Blair Major) 8

No doubt, law and religion are different, and they call “Canadian Values” or “Canadian Society.” often times disagree. But maybe if we focus our attention It is not that we should be ignorant of the natures of on these points of overlap we might start to see that they legal and religious discourses, or that we should believe can speak to each other in constructive ways, even in their their differences to be intractable. To the contrary, it is to disagreement. delve into the depths of both religion and law, and in that As an analogy – we might think of law and religion as process to discover the insight of intellectual humility in playing a similar tune. Like two members of a jazz band, addressing these important social questions. Sherman their differences can be played together, and feed off each Clark, a professor of law at the University of Michigan, other. Since they are both trying to play the song together, phrased it well when he said, the tension between them helps make the song what it is. “Crucially, what we seek is not the murkiness that can come So, what does Canada need to “know” to thrive in from confusing things that could be clear, nor from mucking the future? How can we address socially volatile situations up something shallow until it is murky enough to seem like those involving Ms Ishaq and Trinity Western deep. Rather, the uncertainty we acknowledge and seek University? To answer the question in a somewhat cheeky comes from seeing clearly how deep something really is. way, I propose that the less we claim to “know”, and the This capacity, which might better be called intellectual less we attempt to resolve the tensions between religion humility, is not the opposite of clear thought but a and law, the better off we are. Such an attitude enables us consequence of it.” to take the risk that is essential – to let religious and legal (Work Cited: Sherman Clark, “Law School as Liberal ideas of meaning and belonging push and pull each other in Education” (2013) 63:2 J Legal Educ 235 at 241 ) the song we are writing together, in constructing what we

Blair Major Blair Major is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Law at McGill University. He completed his undergraduate education at Trinity Western University, followed by his first law degree at the University of Alberta. Blair is a member of the Law Society of Alberta, and practiced law in Edmonton prior to pursuing graduate studies in law. Blair completed a Master’s degree in law at McGill, which focused on religious freedom in the field of international human rights. His current doctoral research focuses on exploring overlaps and connections between legal and religious discourses. Blair holds a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral Award, and a Richard H Tomlinson Doctoral 9 Fellowship from McGill University.

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